The Rants & Rambles of A Grumpy Old Dude

I Remember

I remember that November 11th is a very special day! It is Remembrance Day in Canada, and Veterans’ Day in the USA.

You remember to do the many small, but significant, things you should do today. Remember to salute a service(wo)man – respect and thank an older veteran – drag your ass away from the mattress sale and attend a cenotaph ceremony, even if it’s on TV – stand quietly at attention for two whole minutes, at 11:00 AM. That means, turn the damned cell phone off. They didn’t fight for your right to play Farmville or Angry Birds.

Remember to think about how much the armed forces have given, so that you can have so much. Remember the peace and plenty you enjoy – and who obtained it, and continues to defend it. It wouldn’t hurt to do that every day of the year, but today it is mandatory.

I remember that my father went to sea in WWII, and that my/our world is much better because of him and his compatriots, and the valiant few who still guard us. They will be honored, as long as we remember.

I’m not sure which way would be better. If our Betters gave Ontario a stat Holiday, we’d probably waste it like many Americans, at White Sales or Christmas shopping. Schools used to insist on two minutes of respectful silence, but places like my auto-parts plant had trouble remembering in time to halt continuous processes. Thanx for stoppin’ ’round. 😀

My father was 36 on Pearl Harbor day and thus a little long in the tooth to join up, but he was a welder during the war and, among other places, worked on a big government project of some kind in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His brother however was a corpsman in the U.S. Army and saw action in Europe. If he talked about it, it wasn’t in front of me and my cousins, but he brought home some “souvenirs”, a Mauser rifle, a pistol and a bayonet, residue of horrors without doubt. My wife’s three uncles also saw Army action in WW II, one of whom came home with “shell shock” and was never quite right thereafter.

People prefer to think of military service as thoughtful sacrifice, but the truth is much more complex than that in my experience. Wars are mostly fought by the young who are insulated from reality by their inexperience and a sense of adventure. I was reminded of this when I saw the display in the moat around the Tower of London, 880,000 ceramic poppies representing the British dead in the War To End All Wars 100 years ago. If only.